We’ve started looking seriously at houses to buy. We even have a real estate agent (Leslie, a family of a friend). It’s supposed to be a buyer’s market, but I’ll tell you, houses in Portland are still outrageously priced. I believe I read that the average price here is more than $300k. However, I get the idea that sellers are more than willing to come down quite a bit in price. After looking at just a couple of houses, they were practically begging us to buy the place.
As for location, there’s a dilemma. Without assigning blame, I’ll just say that we require a large yard, a large house, a modern house, a safe neighborhood, and a close-in location. Those things put together, especially the location, are hard to come by. The closer you get to Portland, the smaller the yard and the older the house. Mind you, we both love old houses, but times have changed and most old houses don’t accommodate our modern luxuries. At this point, we’ve found some places in the far East – around the Mt. Scott area.